$1 Million More To Fight Rats As Rodent Complaints Multiply

The city will boost the number of crews assigned to fight rats and buy 10,000 garbage cans to replace those that rats have gnawed through. View Full Caption

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CITY HALL — Vowing to step up the city's efforts get Chicago's exploding rat population under control, Mayor Rahm Emanuel Friday proposed spending an additional $1 million to get rid of the disease-ridden vermin.

That budget boost will allow the city to add five crews of workers charged with reducing the number of critters scurrying through Chicago's streets and alleys, officials said. The boost will bring the number of rat control crews to 30 in 2018, officials said.

In addition, Emanuel will ask the City Council to earmark an additional $500,000 to buy 10,000 new black garbage carts to replace those gnawed through by rodents determined to make a tasty meal of refuse, officials said.

City officials will pay for the new carts and more rat-fighting crews with money saved by making the city's garbage pickup system more efficient, officials said.

The city received 39,000 rat complaints in 2017, and responded to all of them within five days, officials said. That's up 30 percent from 2016.